jtara - 1:25 am on Aug 9, 2007 (gmt 0)

news.com has some more details:

[news.com.com...]

The process is not for everyone, and in fact requires a lengthy verification process of sending off your comment and credentials to a special Google e-mail address, and later verifying your identity via domain name and an e-mail follow-up from Google staff. If you pass the test, your comment will show up alongside the article.

Comments don't seem to be limited to persons who are mentioned in the article, though. They seem to be accepting comments from "experts" in whatever the article is about. Two of the three comments on the examples found in the wild mentioned in the news.com article are NOT mentioned in the associated article nor associated with any company or organization mentioned. However, one of the articles, which is about "McBranding" does have a comment from a VP of McDonald's Corporate Communications.

I see this as a highly slippery slope. Google is going to decide for us who the experts are.

The only winners seem to be the publicity-hound "experts" who are already gaming the system, on day one.

And a whole new branch of SEO opens-up...